So I bought my car CPO and I take it in every once in a while when I see or hear something out of the ordinary with it. I know that they charge you a 50 dollar service fee for the CPO, but was not aware of the $160 inspection fee as well until recently.

So how they explained it to me was:
- if the dealership inspects it and the engine is ok or if it's not the engine's problem, then they charge the $160.
- if it is the engine's problem, they charge $50 for the service fee
- if it's the HPFP, they charge $0 since that's got warranty until 120k.

So before knowing all this, I've taken it into the dealership once because I saw some sort of leak coming from the engine. My service adviser did not charge me the 160 because she said she knew it was coming from the engine or something to those lines. The techs apparently took out the engine, inspected it, and said it was just residual oil from something (i'm assuming the new HPFP that got replaced from a recent recall).

Now recently, I took my car to another dealership because I was experiencing longer than usual crank times. The service adviser here calls me back the next day and tells me that they went through all the standard pressure checks, did some relearning, and tested it again, and nothing was wrong. He was going to charge me $160 because nothing was wrong (maybe the long crank went away after the tech did the relearning) and basically I wasted the tech's time and someone's got to pay for it. If there was something wrong, he woulda just charged me the $50. Ok. But I argued with him about the CPO policy for a while and he said there's a small chance that he might waive it but probably not.
I pick up the car, and they charged me nothing.

So my question is
1. Is the 160 normal to charge if the problem is not the engine/if there's no problem

and

2. When can the dealership waive the inspection fee and when can I not? To me, it seems like they are doing it on a whim here.

Nowhere in my extended warranty contract does it say $160, so if anyone tells me that I'm not gonna pay it.

But, the patterns are so similar. BMW just doesn't get it. Hmmm....a person's car doesn't start properly, but they never seem to be able to find the problem. Until PUMA comes to town. And they think it's ok. That's the problem.

The 160 that the dealership is charging you is up to the dealership's discretion. That is usually called check-out time or diagnosis time. This should be agreed to before the car even makes it into the shop when you drop it off. It is saying that you agree that to pay a 1 hour diagnosis fee in case there is no fault found and the technician has had to do a lot of work for all their checks. This is NOT BMW procedure and it basically the dealership trying to get their tech's time covered. You should never have to pay for anything that you did not agree to at the beginning. CPO warranty means that they should check your car out and if they find something wrong, then you pay the $50 deductible. If they find nothing wrong, you should pay nothing!! (unless you agreed to pay for diagnosis time when you dropped it off) this sounds like a bad dealer to me.... hope that helps, all dealers have different ways to try and get paid....

Thanks for the replies! I find it kind of odd that both of these dealerships were charging me this. Would I be able to contact BMW NA and complain about this? I do not wish to have to deal with having to negotiate the 160 dollar inspection fee every time I go to the dealership. I'm guessing they are legally allowed to charge this fee? But is there some way I can talk them into consistently just waiving it and charging me $50?

The 160 that the dealership is charging you is up to the dealership's discretion. That is usually called check-out time or diagnosis time. This should be agreed to before the car even makes it into the shop when you drop it off. It is saying that you agree that to pay a 1 hour diagnosis fee in case there is no fault found and the technician has had to do a lot of work for all their checks. This is NOT BMW procedure and it basically the dealership trying to get their tech's time covered. You should never have to pay for anything that you did not agree to at the beginning. CPO warranty means that they should check your car out and if they find something wrong, then you pay the $50 deductible. If they find nothing wrong, you should pay nothing!! (unless you agreed to pay for diagnosis time when you dropped it off) this sounds like a bad dealer to me.... hope that helps, all dealers have different ways to try and get paid....

Just tell the SA that while you're sorry he gets a poor hourly rate, poor benefits and no health care, that it was his decision to drop out of high school. And yes, even though he is under pressure by his management to deny warranty work and book fictitious charges, you're not going to pay, plain and simple. And how does a formal complaint to the state DMV sound to him? But seriously, you have to be prepared to switch dealerships. If you're not, they've got you. Too many BMW owners are spineless leasing jellyfish, and so the rest of us have to put up with this c***.

Just tell the SA that while you're sorry he gets a poor hourly rate, poor benefits and no health care, that it was his decision to drop out of high school. And yes, even though he is under pressure by his management to deny warranty work and book fictitious charges, you're not going to pay, plain and simple. And how does a formal complaint to the state DMV sound to him? But seriously, you have to be prepared to switch dealerships. If you're not, they've got you. Too many BMW owners are spineless leasing jellyfish, and so the rest of us have to put up with this c***.